Copy my Google Drive PC Folders without synchronising on the web

Question

We are working with around 40 people on one of my Google Drive Folders, with all kind of subfolders, around 1 GB total and different share authorisations.

We got the problem that sometimes the synchronisations go wrong, files disappear and because of this I would like to make a copy of my PC folders on an external drive, or my computer without synchronisation!

But when I copy this the 'desktop' app is included and I have the feeling as soon as I go online with my backup drive it starts synchronising again. I want to keep my backup with an older version, so if needed I can go back.

What I do not want is making a backup online, because then I have to synchronise all documents weekly again and I live at the moment in Ethiopia and downloading is costly and not easy with low internet speed.

So I guess the copy of my PC folders should not include the 'desktop' app.

Hope you understand my problem and I hope someone can give me an idea how to solve this problem.

Answer 1

So if I understand correctly you are needing to make an offline back up of your google drive folder that is in your desktop?

Here are two different options.

1. Create a compressed version. This restricts the access to the files, however they are safe and can be done inside the cloud. Anyone can do this and could be done as a rotational duty. Purge or remove and storage once a week to avoid storage limits.

2. After the files are synchronized to your computer you have offline copies already available. You can simply copy the files "not the google drive folder" to a folder on the external hard drive. This will not resync the files and avoid the bandwidth usage.

If I were going to do something like this and from the sounds of it you do not have direct access to the files around the clock. Simply make separate Google drive that only certain people have access to so that you can transfer these files directly through Google to avoid the bandwidth charges.

Hope this helps :)